OT convection education

We are not surprised. In replacing the hard floors - we knew another shoe
would drop. Something that was expensive and inconvenient was bound to
fail. It was expected.
Our stove had been somewhat iffy for years and finally went totally mad.
So. I've had to buy a new one. "They say" it will be here next week.
Sure. Like I'm going to pin my hopes on that. We knew this was coming soon
and had made out a list of wants.
Along with some things I really wanted comes a feature called Sabbath
Mode.
It took some researching to find out what that is. I read that Jews do
not turn on appliances on their Sabbath but are permitted to leave them on.
Thus, the automatic turnoff after twelve hours can be avoided by putting the
stove in Sabbath Mode. Very interesting, don't you think?
Also. Convection ovens have been around since about 1984. I've managed
to avoid them until now. Any advice? What's the learning scale? Is it
going to take months to learn convection baking? Do I just get a
convectionectomy and forget it? What say you? Polly

I'm still learning! It is rare that I use the oven for meal cooking
but I do love the temp probe - set it and forget it, the oven turns
itself off.
Best setting for pastry baking is convect.roast 375. I recently took
a convection recipe book out of the library and I found some useful
info and recipe ideas.
Parchment paper is a must accessory for quick roasting of vegetables.
I have all that I need to play with breadmaking next - something that
I haven't bothered with for several years - and this year the kitchen
has been too cold for the dough. The author of the book advised that
the first test should be a regular recipe that has always been
successful in a non-convection oven - use the default oven temp of 325
and check at 10/15min intervals. jennellh

On Jan 29, 10:38*pm, "Polly Esther" wrote:
We are not surprised. *In replacing the hard floors - we knew another shoe
would drop. *Something that was expensive and inconvenient was bound to
fail. *It was expected.
* * Our stove had been somewhat iffy for years and finally went totally mad.
So. *I've had to buy a new one. *"They say" it will be here next week..
Sure. *Like I'm going to pin my hopes on that. *We knew this was coming soon
and had made out a list of wants.
* * Along with some things I really wanted comes a feature called Sabbath
Mode.
* * It took some researching to find out what that is. *I read that Jews do
not turn on appliances on their Sabbath but are permitted to leave them on.

No, Jennifer. Let me enlighten you on that one. Julia Child, my hero,
mentioned in one of her books that the 'let rise in a warm, draft-free
place' was bunk. It is. As a matter of certain fact, bread that rises
slowly instead of that unattainable 80° tastes even better and is fine,
fine.
I put my bread to rise at maybe 8 a.m. It might be ready to bake at 2
p.m. or 7 p.m. No matter. The quality of the bread will suffer no ill
effects. If you're on a schedule, this won't do at all - but if you don't
particularly care you can create very grand bread whatever the kitchen
temperature or season happens to be.
The new oven has 3 racks. Do I dare attempt three cookie sheets at
once? Polly


"jennellh" wrote in message
...
I'm still learning! It is rare that I use the oven for meal cooking
but I do love the temp probe - set it and forget it, the oven turns
itself off.
Best setting for pastry baking is convect.roast 375. I recently took
a convection recipe book out of the library and I found some useful
info and recipe ideas.
Parchment paper is a must accessory for quick roasting of vegetables.
I have all that I need to play with breadmaking next - something that
I haven't bothered with for several years - and this year the kitchen
has been too cold for the dough. The author of the book advised that
the first test should be a regular recipe that has always been
successful in a non-convection oven - use the default oven temp of 325
and check at 10/15min intervals. jennellh

On Jan 29, 10:38 pm, "Polly Esther" wrote:
We are not surprised. In replacing the hard floors - we knew another shoe
would drop. Something that was expensive and inconvenient was bound to
fail. It was expected.
Our stove had been somewhat iffy for years and finally went totally mad.
So. I've had to buy a new one. "They say" it will be here next week.
Sure. Like I'm going to pin my hopes on that. We knew this was coming soon
and had made out a list of wants.
Along with some things I really wanted comes a feature called Sabbath
Mode.
It took some researching to find out what that is. I read that Jews do
not turn on appliances on their Sabbath but are permitted to leave them
on.
Thus, the automatic turnoff after twelve hours can be avoided by putting
the
stove in Sabbath Mode. Very interesting, don't you think?
Also. Convection ovens have been around since about 1984. I've managed
to avoid them until now. Any advice? What's the learning scale? Is it
going to take months to learn convection baking? Do I just get a
convectionectomy and forget it? What say you? Polly

I do love my convection oven. Modern ones usually have a choice,
anyway. Mine will bake with or without, there's a choice of big grill
or little grill, top or bottom heat or both, any combination of the
above, and a cleaning program. No learning curve at all, just try
reducing the start temperature 5-10 degrees for bread and such.
Cookies, leave it cranked up and don't leave the kitchen.
So why would you want your stove to stay on that long? Seems
dangerous.
Roberta in D

On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:38:56 -0600, "Polly Esther"
wrote:

We are not surprised. In replacing the hard floors - we knew another shoe
would drop. Something that was expensive and inconvenient was bound to
fail. It was expected.
Our stove had been somewhat iffy for years and finally went totally mad.
So. I've had to buy a new one. "They say" it will be here next week.
Sure. Like I'm going to pin my hopes on that. We knew this was coming soon
and had made out a list of wants.
Along with some things I really wanted comes a feature called Sabbath
Mode.
It took some researching to find out what that is. I read that Jews do
not turn on appliances on their Sabbath but are permitted to leave them on.
Thus, the automatic turnoff after twelve hours can be avoided by putting the
stove in Sabbath Mode. Very interesting, don't you think?
Also. Convection ovens have been around since about 1984. I've managed
to avoid them until now. Any advice? What's the learning scale? Is it
going to take months to learn convection baking? Do I just get a
convectionectomy and forget it? What say you? Polly

On Jan 29, 10:38*pm, "Polly Esther" wrote:
We are not surprised. *In replacing the hard floors - we knew another shoe
would drop. *Something that was expensive and inconvenient was bound to
fail. *It was expected.
* * Our stove had been somewhat iffy for years and finally went totally mad.
So. *I've had to buy a new one. *"They say" it will be here next week..
Sure. *Like I'm going to pin my hopes on that. *We knew this was coming soon
and had made out a list of wants.
* * Along with some things I really wanted comes a feature called Sabbath
Mode.
* * It took some researching to find out what that is. *I read that Jews do
not turn on appliances on their Sabbath but are permitted to leave them on.

Baking cookies faster should be great. One of the favorites here calls for
twenty minutes of baking time and the recipe makes more than 100. The whole
production just seems to go on forever.
As to leaving the oven on for more than 12 hours - yes, that sounds
dangerous. I've never thought putting food in the oven and setting it to
cook hours later was really safe either.
The new oven can also dehydrate. What's that good for? Tomatoes,
maybe? Polly

"Roberta" wroteI do love my convection oven. Modern ones usually have a
choice,
anyway. Mine will bake with or without, there's a choice of big grill
or little grill, top or bottom heat or both, any combination of the
above, and a cleaning program. No learning curve at all, just try
reducing the start temperature 5-10 degrees for bread and such.
Cookies, leave it cranked up and don't leave the kitchen.
So why would you want your stove to stay on that long? Seems
dangerous.
Roberta in D

"Polly Esther" wrote
We are not surprised. In replacing the hard floors - we knew another shoe
would drop. Something that was expensive and inconvenient was bound to
fail. It was expected.
Our stove had been somewhat iffy for years and finally went totally
mad.
So. I've had to buy a new one. "They say" it will be here next week.
Sure. Like I'm going to pin my hopes on that. We knew this was coming
soon
and had made out a list of wants.
Along with some things I really wanted comes a feature called Sabbath
Mode.
It took some researching to find out what that is. I read that Jews
do
not turn on appliances on their Sabbath but are permitted to leave them
on.
Thus, the automatic turnoff after twelve hours can be avoided by putting
the
stove in Sabbath Mode. Very interesting, don't you think?
Also. Convection ovens have been around since about 1984. I've
managed
to avoid them until now. Any advice? What's the learning scale? Is it
going to take months to learn convection baking? Do I just get a
convectionectomy and forget it? What say you? Polly

I remember seeing your stove in one of your pictures, John, and that sure is
a beauty. It's good of you to volunteer for the chore of 'official Quality
Control and Taste supervisor'. A dirty job but somebody's got to do it. =)
Polly

"John" wroteI will second the shout out for convection ovens. We have one
on the
stove that we installed in our current house. My wife ignored it for
years, which you can do by not switching it on, and recently I goaded
her to give it a try, as every book on baking seemed to rave about
them. Well she is now a convert. Baking is enhanced, or so she seems
to think, and as the official Quality Control and Taste supervisor,
for all cookies and short-breads, that come out of that sucker, I can
attest to it's superior abilities. Cooking times are shortened and
control of temperatures are much enhanced. If you don't want to use
it, for whatever reason, then you just don't switch it on. Simple
enough, and you have it there if you feel the need to avail yourself
of it's features. Win-Win.

The kitchen temp has been really too too cold for any kind of baking -
pastry making OK - anything else though - nope! I have had more
failures this year than ever before - just not up to my standards at
all, at all, at all. My Mum used to make a bread bap that was
otherwordly - somewhere her notes exist but I haven't found them yet -
we still talk about her bread in the family and I would definitely
like to recreate it. I have mould allergies and I have to take care
of the yeast aroma - otherwise I am in trouble - hence, my tried and
true method of breadmaking will have to suffice. It is definitely
time that my old recipe for hot cross buns be taken out of mothballs!
My oven does have a bread proofing setting that I could use but I do
like to watch the action under the lights on top of the stove. For
years, I changed the 60watts for 100's in the kitchen exhaust during
the winter season just for the heat factor - it is a cold room when
the wind direction hits that side of the building - they were perfect
for bread rising too.

As for buying yeast these days, there was a choice of three in Walmart
yesterday: regular, fast-rise, or bread machine (in jars). I used to
just buy a large scoop from one of the bulk shops and keep it until
needed - 1tblsp=1packet of yeast. It was certainly a lot cheaper to
buy the bulk version.

The Sabbath mode cuts out all the bells and chimes automatically for
that day of the week. As for dehydrating, I have found that the
butter section in the door of my fridge does a fantastic job of drying
herbs over a short measure of time. I have a bunch of mint in there
now that is ready for crushing into a jar and a rather large bunch of
parsley will go in next - no time spent by me with the microwave any
more doing the job.

The oven interior is wider and three racks in use at the same time is
perfectly fine as long as there is space between trays for the air to
circulate. Convect bake doesn't use a bottom burner so nothing burns
on the bottom. I bake six trays at a time for cookies, muffins or
scones with no problem your 100 batch recipe should be finished in a
flash and you'll have more spare time to get into more trouble.
jennellh

On Jan 29, 11:16*pm, "Polly Esther" wrote:
No, Jennifer. *Let me enlighten you on that one. *Julia Child, my hero,
mentioned in one of her books that the 'let rise in a warm, draft-free
place' was bunk. *It is. *As a matter of certain fact, bread that rises
slowly instead of that unattainable 80° tastes even better and is fine,
fine.
* * I put my bread to rise at maybe 8 a.m. * It might be ready to bake at 2
p.m. or 7 p.m. *No matter. *The quality of the bread will suffer no ill
effects. *If you're on a schedule, this won't do at all - but if you don't
particularly care you can create very grand bread whatever the kitchen
temperature or season happens to be.
* * The new oven has 3 racks. *Do I dare attempt three cookie sheets at
once? *Polly

"jennellh" wrote in message

...
I'm still learning! *It is rare that I use the oven for meal cooking
but I do love the temp probe - set it and forget it, the oven turns
itself off.
Best setting for pastry baking is convect.roast 375. *I recently took
a convection recipe book out of the library and I found some useful
info and recipe ideas.
Parchment paper is a must accessory for quick roasting of vegetables.
I have all that I need to play with breadmaking next - something that
I haven't bothered with for several years - and this year the kitchen
has been too cold for the dough. *The author of the book advised that
the first test should be a regular recipe that has always been
successful in a non-convection oven - use the default oven temp of 325
and check at 10/15min intervals. *jennellh

On Jan 29, 10:38 pm, "Polly Esther" wrote:



We are not surprised. In replacing the hard floors - we knew another shoe
would drop. Something that was expensive and inconvenient was bound to
fail. It was expected.
Our stove had been somewhat iffy for years and finally went totally mad..
So. I've had to buy a new one. "They say" it will be here next week.
Sure. Like I'm going to pin my hopes on that. We knew this was coming soon
and had made out a list of wants.
Along with some things I really wanted comes a feature called Sabbath
Mode.
It took some researching to find out what that is. I read that Jews do
not turn on appliances on their Sabbath but are permitted to leave them
on.
Thus, the automatic turnoff after twelve hours can be avoided by putting
the
stove in Sabbath Mode. Very interesting, don't you think?
Also. Convection ovens have been around since about 1984. I've managed
to avoid them until now. Any advice? What's the learning scale? Is it
going to take months to learn convection baking? Do I just get a
convectionectomy and forget it? What say you? Polly- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Just when you have time, go play at http://www.kingarthurflour.com/ and
probably some other online baking resources. They just might have some
wonderful stuff that would help you - especially in the yeast section. I
believe (and the facts won't affect my opinion) that the stuff our Wally
sells has been stored for years in a hot train car for months or years.
Polly


"jennellh" wrote in partMy Mum used to make a bread bap that was
otherwordly - somewhere her notes exist but I haven't found them yet -
we still talk about her bread in the family and I would definitely
like to recreate it. I have mould allergies and I have to take care
of the yeast aroma - otherwise I am in trouble - hence, my tried and
true method of breadmaking will have to suffice. It is definitely
time that my old recipe for hot cross buns be taken out of mothballs!
As for buying yeast these days, there was a choice of three in Walmart
yesterday: regular, fast-rise, or bread machine (in jars). I used to
just buy a large scoop from one of the bulk shops and keep it until
needed - 1tblsp=1packet of yeast. It was certainly a lot cheaper to
buy the bulk version. . .

Hush, Taria. Gators are an endangered species. ( but we know who's
Endangered). Polly

"Taria" wrote Could you dehydrate gator jerky?
Good luck with the new machine. I know nothing about convection so
hopefully you can share with us after you are an expert.
Happy Baking!